The Muench Bunch

 I get upset and in a frump. I get tired and grouchy. I run coffee and a tea jug to the field mid morning. I get back and fix lunch, eat quick so I can take it to the field. I spent the afternoon running people from place to place, field to field. Then it rained, then a tractor was leaking oil. I helped the kids with what they need, I run kids to the field. I felt like I was running in circles and most of the fields were not close to home. Then I took Jayden’s friend back home to Dayton and got gas because my tank was so low I feared running out. I got a Casey’s pizza because I was there and it made sense. I ran pizza to three locations. Back home I get a shower and somebody needed a ride. Most nights I am so tired and don't get to bed before 11:00 anymore. I complain and grumble. I should not be this way, farming is our life. This is how we live and every day is different. I need to think of Mark. He has been putting in 16 hour days in the field running his side dresser,. He push

I am trying to jog a few times a week. I am not very good at staying motivated and the weather has to be perfect or I don’t go. Today was nice and I took a morning jog. Next I trimmed more trees in the yard. We have enough tree trimming to be done that we could hire someone. Then I took lunch to the field. It was turning into a nice warm day,so I had the kids wash the Tahoe and we washed the garage floor. That turned into the sprinkler in the yard. Luke and Jake had a blast in it. It even started sprinkling rain, while running through the sprinkler, that was fun.  Today Karen had her shoulder surgery. A big answer to prayer, it turned out not to need a shoulder replacement, but a piece of cartridge that was floating around in there needed removed. That means a shorter recovery and healing.

On the days that should be fairly quiet and uneventful, the day seems crammed. All morning I mowed the yard and trimmed trees. I have been hoeing in my strawberry patch just about 20 minutes at a time. It hurts my back, neck, and shoulders so much I have to do little bits at a time. Trimming and mowing really aggravate all that too. I fixed lunch, fed the kids, then took it to the field. I like to sit down on my computer and blog as my free moments of relaxation. Later I hooked up the truck and trailer, moved Jake the old horse from Kraen and Orrie’s to Aunt Betty’s old farm. Then off to the 4H horse meeting. I had two horses, three kids, and suppers for the guys. We took the suppers to the guys on the way and made it to the meeting with only a few minutes to spare. Every day is a busy day anymore.

 Jake was up at 6AM with a fever and sore throat. I had heard of people getting strep throat after having tonsils out, but was hoping that wasn’t the case. I looked at his throat and knew it was. Sure enough after a trip to the doctor it was confirmed. So sad for Jake and discouraging. It is hard as a parent to tell your child you have to have surgery, you are having surgery so that you will never have strep throat again, you are never going to have to go through this again. Then wham, he has to have a second surgery, and wham now he has strep throat again.  So upsetting, Jake didn’t get as run down and sick as he usually does. Part of it is fast response and getting him to the doctor and on meds. right away.

 Jayden and Jake went to the Spillman’s. Alex had invited Jacob to come over. I think the boys are excited to have found a new friend in one another. Jayden was invited to go along with Makenna to see the whole process of vaccinating, worming, and castrating the wild studs. It was quite a process that I got to hear all about. The kids stayed at their house until after 10 enjoying smores. Luke visited Granmda and Grandpa for awhile. I later learned that he took an hour nap on their couch. It has been years since that has happened. He also rode his bike by himself today. He rode in the grass down a hill so he wouldn’t crash on the rock. I have been working with him.  

The kids stayed with my parents and went to the Memorial day service in Williams. Dad was the Legion Commander this year, giving the speech at the church. Then the service at the park. The boys helped hand our programs and Dad told about Jayden's "Star" project. Jayden, with Grandma's help has been cutting out stars from old worn Iowa flags. She takes each star, places them in a small bag with a poem about thanking the person for their service. She hands them out to veterans whenever she sees on. That is where Grandma comes in. She spots the old men based on their hat or their age. Today she handed several out. She is also doing the "Stars for Troops" as a 4-H project.

Just My Opinion "Values" These are a few things that we value and share with our kids. I hope someday our kids will do the same. We pray at meals and bedtime everyday. We hug and kiss and say I love you, not only to the kids but to each other in front of the kids. We read from the bible and learn scripture. We go to church every Sunday that we can. We help serve at church. We let the kids sleep in our room on occasion for fun. We discipline by spanking if necessary. We limit how much tv time the kids have. We limit video games We read books to our kids and with our kids.. We know exactly what our kids are doing and searching on the computer. We try to feed my kids healthy even if I am not a good cook. We let our kids “want” something before just buying it right away. We know our kids friends. We talk to our kids about everything even the hard stuff. . WE don't let our kids be the "boss". We Don’t let our kids use bad words.

 My parents friends, the Williams’ got numerous VIP tickets to a big country concert fest. My mom got four tickets for herself, Carina, Jayden, and I to go. Mom has been so excited about going and has talked about it for weeks. After taking Jaynie home, we got to my parents at 11. The boys stayed  with Grandpa and Alivia for the day. Carina drove and Judy and another Connie I had never met before rode with us. The event was called Tree Top festival in Forrest City. I have never been a VIP for a concert. It was pretty awesome and you did feel pretty VIP. Our tickets did not cost us anything, however those people who did pay for them paid $500 for the two day concert. So we were treated as if we spent that kind of money to be there. We had special up close parking. We had a reserved seating up close to the stage, we also had a standing area at the stage. You could get so close you could touch the singer if you wanted. We had a tent with unlimited buffet of really good food and drinks. T

 Today was the last official day of school for everyone. Jayden and Jake finished up mid-week, but today was Luke’s last day and he got out at 11:30. I planned a cousin day just like we did last year to celebrate school getting out. We had the day planned out at Spring Lake and the kids were very excited. I knew the older girls were busy with jobs and sports. Maggie was coming for sure and Lori waited until 11:00 today  to call and tell me only Jaynie would be coming. I was sad for Jacob. The boys were so excited to get to spend time with their cousin Rylie, whom they think hung the moon. He was at a wrestling meet during Luke’s birthday party, so the last time the boys did something with Rylie was Orrie’s birthday in November. Family is something that you will have forever and I try to value that. Friends can come and go, but family will always be there. I grew up very close to my cousins and loved that. I have tried to plan something special every year with the kids and cousins. I a

 I went to school and had lunch with Luke. It is so fun to see what he is like and who his friends are at school. I wish I could be a mouse in the corner during the school year. Little neighbor girl Jane was holding his hand while waiting in the lunch line and sat with us to eat too. I also stayed for recess right after lunch. Luke’s friend Joe plays farm with him and Joe was telling me how they drive and sell Salfords. I love it! His girlfriend Alex G. just follows him around. She is a tough little thing, she gave Luke a friendly push and about knocked him to the ground. The girl doesn’t know her own strength. I saw her race across the monkey bars forward and backwards, several times. My kids have never been strong enough to cross the monkey bars and she did it with such ease. Both Jane and Alex G. talked about going to Luke’s house. They were planing a play date.   In the evening we had a 4H horse project meeting. To our disbelief, there were 3 very large elephants in one of the b

I took some photos of Jayden and Ace and Jacob and Winnie in the pasture.

 I planned a Grandparent Day at the house. This was a time for the kids to show what they did during their school year. They had projects they made and showed their textbooks and materials. It was nice for the kids to explain and share what they had been learning and also the grandparents to see too. We also fixed lunch for them, beef sundaes. Peepaw was in the field, so we showed him at a later time. Jayden was excited to show her items she saved from her dissection class. In showing the brain, heart, lungs, and eyeball, I think we were all impressed with her. I see a medical career in her future. Most of what Jacob liked to share was his many drawings. He just gets better every year. 

 Sharon P. is a friend from the Stratford Baptist church and the kids’ AWANA leader for many years. Today we took the morning and went for a visit. I even kept Luke out of school for the morning. Sharon had us over for waffles, then we whipped up some homeade chocolate chip cookies. The kids and I enjoyed out visit. She is a very bold Godly woman. She speaks of the Lord and shows his love to all she is around, mainly through bear hugs. She is the huggiest person I know.  

After the Youth rodeo, we got ready and headed to Jossie Ferrari's graduation. Mark and I served the food at her graduation party. Troy grills up some amazing ribeye's for sandwiches. I remember the first time I met Jo, she looked like the little "Simpson's" baby sucking on her pacifier with her big ears and little pony tail on top of her head. When she was around 6, she had her shoes on the wrong feet, we told her just to cross her feet, then her shoes would be right. She tried crossing her feet and waling and looked at us so serious and said,"I can't walk very good that way."  Jossie has always made me laugh with some of the blonde things she says. She has been a top athlete in all the sports and hopes to go on and play in college. She plans to attend ICCC in Ft. Dodge.

 Today was the Dayton Wranglers Youth rodeo. Since it fell on a Sunday, we try our best to make it in time for cowboy church at 8AM. It makes for an early and rushed morning. The boys were all spiffy in their new western shirts. Jesse G. did the church service. Without a microphone he was hard to hear and an extremely rude fowl mouthed family behind us didn’t help either. People like that make me want to scream. During the rodeo, I had good helpers setting up and running the timed events, barrels, poles, and flags. The girls started with a good serpentine routine.  Both Jayden and Jacob competed in the events. Jake was looking pretty proud on his horse, Winnie. He did a really good job, loped the entire pole pattern, and went through poles at a trot then lope home. He still hangs on to his saddle horn and neck reins his horse, however he has come a long way and is getting better all the time. Jayden did a good job on her horse, Ace. Her run was good and tight around the barrels. Her

May 16th and 17th,  Jayden and I attended the NICHE homeschooling conference in Des Moines. Mark and Jacob attended for an hour session with me on Friday morning. The conference was so awesome and motivating. The speakers and breakout sessions are so rich and encouraging. Reb Bradley was the speaker and author I enjoyed most. He spoke on a lot of parenting issues, from discipline to homeschool. The key point of it all was shape your childs heart by teaching them values and to love the Lord. Avoiding sheltering, controlling, and judging others were some of the topics covered. He also did a whole talk on discipline. He pointed out the number one problem today comes from the parents lack of discipline. If children do not respect authority of the parents, it carries over into their teacher, boss, and the law. It makes sense to me and it is evident in the number of problems we have in this country.  During the conference I had enrolled Jayden in a Science biology lab course. It was two da

I never did get the rain totals, but we got a lot of rain in our area. In driving around you could see the ponds left from all the rain in our fields. Tex is a light Palomino that is so pretty. Unfortunatly he loves the mud. He likes to go and roll in the fresh mud. That is exactly what he did. Once the mud was nice and dry, Jayden wanted to ride. I agreed to help her by brushing half of the horse since he was so messy. That is what I did, I brushed half, only I brushed him with stripes. He makes a pretty good zebra.

The forecast was full of storm watches and warnings, it looked to be an eventful day. I knew a picnic or outdoors activity was out of the question. I enjoy those things for Mother’s Day. When asked what I would like to do, I said, “ Church and the new Mom’s Night Out movie.” I got my wish. During church you could hear the heavy rain and the rumbles of thunder. Their were pop up storms all over the state. We had lunch at the Chinese buffet next to the movie theatre for  convenience . The boys saw a kid movie “Rio 2” with Dad and Jayden went with me to my movie, "Mom's Night Out". It was the best! It was a great movie, kept me laughing and was full of action. Loved it. It was just what I needed. I knew if I was at home, I would be trying to clean and pick up the house after a busy messy weekend.

 Match of The Broncs #1 for the season. Today would be hectic and busy as always. I had Jayden down to the arena by 9 AM with horses. From there I unhooked the trailer and headed to Luke’s soccer game. Having Luke’s soccer game was kind of an outlet to get my mind off all the rodeo things for an hour. My parents helped me out by having the boys last night and getting Luke to his game on time. We sat under an umbrella in the rain for part of the game. My parents were trying to be 3 places today too. They wanted to see Jayden ride and get back to see Alivia in her dance recital. Luke had a second game later in the day, but with nobody to get him there, he had to miss it. The busiest times are always when Mark is in the field. After the soccer game the boys and I bought Mawgee some flowers to wish her Happy Mother’s Day. She does so much for my kids and I think she is amazing. Back to the arena, the Serpentine girls performed first. They did a really nice job. This year they wore brigh

 Today Luke and I got to spend the day at the zoo. It was the Kindergarten field trip to the Blank Park zoo. I can remember my special day with Jayden and Jacob when we they were in Kindergarten. We rode the bus down, ate our sack lunch, then got to freely explore the zoo. It was cool and a jacket was a must. I felt bad for the kids whose parents dressed them in shorts and a tank top. The first hour seemed to be a congested with so many people. I have never been there when it was so crowded. Later he hooked up with his buddies Joe and Alex L. to ride the train. The boys together are pretty wild and silly. They can't sit still.  At the end of the day he found his best girlfriend buddy Alex G. The zoo has a new African area with rhinos.   It was a very fun day and I was glad to spend it just the two of us. Things have kind of flip flopped. Last year I spent tons of time just Luke and I. Since homeschooling and Luke in full time Kindergarten, we don’t get as much time togeth